Paul Kengor: Kennedy family values

The Kennedys have dominated American politics unlike any other family. And that’s no small statement.

First, there was the Adams family — that is, John and John Quincy, and the brilliant Abigail. Then there were the Roosevelts. More recently, the Bushes.

But it’s hard to surpass the Kennedy longevity, given the sheer number of Joe and Rose progeny who have gone into politics. Joe himself had been a controversial ambassador. Then came the sons: President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy. And just when we thought the Kennedy influence was waning, here comes RFK Jr. as a force in the 2024 presidential race. The junior Bobby Kennedy broke from his family’s Democratic Party to run as an independent and then, in a blockbuster move, endorsed Republican Donald Trump.

The fact that RFK Jr. didn’t endorse the Democratic ticket shouldn’t be surprising. The way Democrats treated him was outrageous. Set aside the trashing of the man as an “anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist” and even an antisemite. They spent a year blocking RFK Jr. from state ballots, all the while proclaiming to save “democracy.” Most egregious, the Biden administration refused to provide RFK Jr. with Secret Service protection — a practice in force since his father’s assassination in June 1968.

They came up with all sorts of excuses justifying Kennedy’s lack of protection, but they had no good reason. The man faced multiple threats. Only after Trump was shot did the Biden administration provide Kennedy with the protection he deserved.

Thus, when RFK Jr. endorsed their opponent in this election, Democrats should not have been shocked. And yet, they and the very Democratic Kennedy family have reacted in a shocking way.

Leading the charge has been RFK Jr.’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, a very partisan Democrat, who says her brother’s “inexplicable” support of Trump has “set fire to my father’s memory.” The family issued a press release labeling Bobby Jr.’s endorsement a “betrayal.”

“We believe in Harris and Walz,” says the family statement. “Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

But the true story is that Bobby is carrying on the tradition of his father and family. His father, uncle and grandfather had often crossed party lines to endorse Republicans.

In 1950, Bobby and his brother John and their father donated money to Republican Richard Nixon to run against Democratic nominee Helen Gahagan Douglas for the U.S. Senate seat in California.

Kennedy historian and longtime liberal Chris Matthews writes in his biography, “Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit,” that RFK Sr. by 1956 had developed such a “contempt for liberals” that he voted for Republican Dwight Eisenhower over Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

In fact, RFK Sr. started his career working for the infamous Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy, a fellow Irish Catholic he respected and loved. The whole Kennedy clan liked McCarthy. McCarthy dated one of the Kennedy girls and spent time at the family compound in Hyannis Port.

Today’s Kennedys need to look more introspectively at their own partisan politics as well as family history. The fact is that RFK Jr. shares the same independent streak of his father, uncle and grandfather. In endorsing a Republican this year, even if Donald Trump, RFK Jr. is not unlike his father.